Cohousing & Coliving
For people who long to live in community with others, with the potential to share spaces, resources, chores, and / or meals. There are as many models for this as there are types of families! Check out the “Resources” section of the site to learn more.
Relevant Work
Plant-Based Buildings
For those interested in a cozy building that draws in more carbon than it emits. These projects began as collaborations with Croft, a carbon-sequestering straw panel manufacturer based in Maine.
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We’re best-suited to work on contemporary, environmentally-responsible, spatially-efficient buildings within a four hour drive of Boston.
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We’re best-suited to work on contemporary, environmentally-responsible, spatially-efficient buildings within a four hour drive of Boston.
Relevant Work
Celebratory Spaces
We design spaces to punctuate life’s special, social moments. We’re a good fit if you’re looking for an experienced team who will:
- Utilize every inch of space, while preserving a clear design vision
- Take the pragmatic issues as seriously as the aesthetic ones
- Help prioritize your budget to maximize impact
Relevant Work
Pick a coconut from your bedroom window!
A new model of housing for multi-generational families and intentional communities
Green House brings a new model of communal living to Boston, one that is equally relevant to two distinct audiences:
multi-generational families that want to cohabitate & people looking for the affordabiliy and companionship of co-living.
What would typically be three separate homes share a communal ground floor that contains: dining, living, laundry and, either a “grandmother flat” or a home business. Each unit can be accessed from the first floor by a private stair that leads to their bedrooms.
The housing is paired with a public greenhouse-promenade that creates a mid-block shortcut, extending the community beyond the dwelling. This greenhouse allows the residents to grow a significant amount of food or flowers, and could be used to provide garden plots for neighbors as well. In Boston’s cold climate it provides a taste of the tropics year-round.
What would typically be three separate homes share a communal ground floor that contains: dining, living, laundry and, either a “grandmother flat” or a home business. Each unit can be accessed from the first floor by a private stair that leads to their bedrooms.
The housing is paired with a public greenhouse-promenade that creates a mid-block shortcut, extending the community beyond the dwelling. This greenhouse allows the residents to grow a significant amount of food or flowers, and could be used to provide garden plots for neighbors as well. In Boston’s cold climate it provides a taste of the tropics year-round.
One-Third Greenhouse + Two-Thirds House, as viewed from the East side
A site diagram showing the arrangement of the greenhouse & the house
This reconfiguration allows families to eat together and have a greater variety of social interactions, while saving on kitchen costs
The site is two back to back lots that create a mid-block pass through. The dimensions, 170’ long by 14’ wide at it’s narrowest, resist traditional development models
Year round tropics within the greenhouse arcade, which can be opened in the warm months
First Floor Plan, Living Room Zoom
The building is constructed of cross
laminated timber (CLT), a low-carbon mass timber structural system that has the warmth & beauty of wood
The upper floors house the majority of the bedrooms and bathrooms.
The shower is separated from the toilet and sink to help mitigate the morning / evening rush. The three separate volumes & the location of the closets creates additional privacy
A third of the ground floor is given over to an in-law unit or a small business (or a hybrid of both, as shown here)
The greenhouse arcade creates a mid-block cut through with year round tropical plants. It:
- Creates a privacy buffer for the residents
- Makes use of a long, narrow site, &
- Generates revenue for the residents through rentable garden plots
A long section cut through the greenhouse-promenade
The height of the greenhouse alternates from one to three stories, in step with the housing. This creates opportunities for trees & hanging plants, while establishing a human-scale
Each bedroom has one window into the greenhouse, and one to fresh air. Window sizes & heights reference the context
A short section cut through the roof deck, bedrooms, living room, and three-story green house.
A short section cut through the communal kitchen showing the windows of the bedrooms beyond
Client
Competition
Timeline
2018Status
CompleteLocation
Boston, MassachusettsServices
ArchitectureLandscape Architecture
Interior Design
Furniture Selection
Related Work
A carbon smart house in rural Maine made of straw
Our client—a young couple with plans for children—wanted a modestly-sized, high-performance, modern house.
They purchased a forested plot with distant ocean views, and reached out to us with a vision for a multi-volume house inspired by—Croft founder, frequent collaborator, and good friend—Andrew Frederick’s nearby home.
Our aim was to internalize the lessons of Andrew’s house and, if we could, build upon them for a family with different needs and site constraints.
The design is composed of two gabled volumes set perpendicularly to each other: one houses the primary bed & bath, and one houses the main living spaces on the first floor & the children’s bedrooms above. They are stitched together by a mudroom, which provides a transitional space and simplifies construction.
They purchased a forested plot with distant ocean views, and reached out to us with a vision for a multi-volume house inspired by—Croft founder, frequent collaborator, and good friend—Andrew Frederick’s nearby home.
Our aim was to internalize the lessons of Andrew’s house and, if we could, build upon them for a family with different needs and site constraints.
The design is composed of two gabled volumes set perpendicularly to each other: one houses the primary bed & bath, and one houses the main living spaces on the first floor & the children’s bedrooms above. They are stitched together by a mudroom, which provides a transitional space and simplifies construction.
The L-shaped house is entered at the outer elbow; the junction between the volumes
The entry porch takes advantage of the morning sun
Floor Plans
First floor; from top left to bottom right:
- Primary bed & bath
- Mudroom / entry
- Family & guest bath
- Under-stair laundry & utility
- Pantry
- Kitchen
- Living Space
The upstairs houses two additional bedrooms and a storage loft above the primary bath
The house form creates a protected courtyard, which faces the distant ocean views
The kitchen & living space is connected to the inner courtyard through generous windows & a large door
A window at the sink increases counterspace, brings in light, and is a killer spot for bird-watching
The ceiling height - driven by the upstairs bedrooms - makes the modest living room feel spacious
The hall (left) creates a distinction between the social and private spaces of the house while doubling as an excellent art gallery
A window / door pair on the inner courtyard side of the primary bedroom makes it feel like you’re sleeping outside
A view from the storage loft to the primary bed
The entry hall to the primary bed provides the homeowner with an additional layer of privacy
The cedar decking changes orientation as it wraps around the elbow. We get excited about simple moves that feel special without adding cost
Although the house only has a few openings, they are often located across from one another - like the kitchen, shown here - to give the space an airy feel
Locating windows at the corners simplifies prefab panelization and encourages light to bounce as it enters the home
Client
PrivateTimeline
2023-Status
Under ConstructionLocation
Rockland, MaineRelated Work
A compact salon with serious storage
Within less than 580 square feet, our client charged us with fitting: a reception & waiting space, product display, a refrigerator, five stylist’s setups, four hair processors, two shampoo stations, a color bar, a lash treatment space, a space for customer selfies, an accessible bathroom, laundry, a mop sink, a utility room, and as much storage as possible. After running through a series of iterations where every inch mattered, we arrived at the solution you see here. One where: every feature serves multiple functions, accessibility clearances are met, storage is accounted for, and their brand is broadcasted to the world.
The pink tone indicates storage
The 15-foot central wood display & storage fixture is a warm counterpoint to the glass & steel of the surrounding neighborhood
The custom mirrors mimic the geometry of the shelves. The seam at 8’ above the floor minimizes waste, keeps cost down, and is above the sight-line
At the rear corners of the space, the paint transitions from eggshell to satin. This gives the rear wall visual interest and makes those locations—where the stylists work with dye—easier to clean
We found a standard anti-fatigue mat product and designed the floor paint at the stations to give it a custom vibe
We specified a 3” diameter wood dowel to give the fixture visual heft, and because it was readily available from product suppliers
The shelf spacing is designed to accommodate the tallest hair product we could find, plus three inches, so that it will serve the client for the long term
The sconces at the stations softly light each patron, while a pair of adjustable track lights overhead provides the even lighting required for the stylist’s to do their job
The central fixture serves many functions. One of the less obvious, but critical, ones is that it helps screen views across the space to create a more intimate experience between stylist and client
All of the benches have hinged tops and interior storage
Timeline
2022-2023Status
BuiltLocation
74 Pier 4 BlvdBoston, MA 02210
Services
ArchitectureInterior Design
Furniture Selection
Programming
Credits
WS Development,Client
Hair Seaport,
Retailer
BLW Engineers,
MEP-FP Engineer
Pieszak Lighting Design,
Lighting Designer
Russco General Contractors,
General Contractor
George Gray,
Photography
Related Work
A foam-free accessory dwelling unit (ADU) designed to passive house standards
Because of the embodied carbon in foam, conventional passive houses have a larger carbon footprint than conventional code-compliant buildings. Bummer. So, what would a passive house without foam look like? How could we make it easy to build, as affordable as possible, contextually appropriate, and nice to look at?
Meet Straw House.
Straw House’s envelope is made of Croft’s pre-fabricated, carbon-sequestering, foam-free building panels. The panels use super-compressed straw as insulation to create an R40 wall assembly (which is really good!).
Meet Straw House.
Straw House’s envelope is made of Croft’s pre-fabricated, carbon-sequestering, foam-free building panels. The panels use super-compressed straw as insulation to create an R40 wall assembly (which is really good!).
Gray = R40 Pre-Fabricated Carbon-Negative Croft Panels (Double stud with compressed straw insulation)
The interior is lined with plywood instead of drywall; replacing a finite resource with a renewable one while adding warmth
332 square feet of cozy living space. We're partial to the kitchen island / banquette hybrid which serves as prep counter, work bar, storage beast, and snooze center.
We care about nerdy things like: "How can we make foundations as cost-effective & easy to build as possible?" For tiny homes like Straw House, you can use a "slab on grade" to eliminate deep & expensive footings, as long as you insulate it correctly! We recommend something made of stone wool to reduce your carbon footprint.
Pouring a concrete slab requires a lot of pre-planning. To simplify that, we've designed a crawlspace below the bathroom & behind the kitchen. This has the added benefit of shortening the runs from the water heater which saves energy!
The building is clad in vertical wood siding finished with pine tar & a corrugated metal roof. If it makes you want to make out, that’s cool.
One wall to rule them all! The storage wall in the living space: displays objects, hosts a flip-down work surface, hides the tv, separates the bedroom, and functions as a cat playground.
The entry
Ease of Construction / Affordability Features
- The design has been optimized to the panel’s 4’-0” x 8’-0” size.
- A slab on grade foundation uses underslab & perimeter skirt rockwool insulation to prevent frost heave, saving on the most expensive part of most builds: deep foundations.
- The crawl space beneath the bathroom makes site coordination easy. No complex utility coordination is required before pouring the slab.
- The kitchen & bath are located next to one another: shortening the route to the water heater (saving energy) and consolidating the utility runs in the crawl space.
- The openings are strategically located; the space feels airy, but only 7% of the envelope is glazed.
- The same triple-glazed window is used throughout to simplify rough opening details.
Client
Portland Society for Architecture
Timeline
2021Status
CompleteAward
Portland Society for Architecture’s Complete City: Filled In Competition,Grand Prize
Location
Portland, MaineServices
ArchitectureInterior Design
Furniture Selection
Credits
Croft,Collaborator & Straw Panel Provider
Related Work
A 650 square foot off-the-grid painting studio in an inlet on Maine’s North Haven island
The client wanted a modern painting studio inspired by a New England vernacular. To achieve this we proposed a structure composed of two of the most-common rooflines in this area: the shed and the gable. We optimized the design around dimensional constraints from window manufacturers and Croft’s carbon-sequesting building panels.
Plan, from left:
- Storage
- Sky-lit painting studio
- Ocean-facing porch
A pair of off-the-shelf operable skylights wash the space in light and allow fumes to vent
Between the joists, the ceiling is cut back at the skylights to bring light further into the space
A Southeastern-facing window provides a spot for the artist’s plants
The pier foundation raises the structure above projected sea level rise estimates while enhancing the view
The shed roof (left) is supported by the gable roof (right) and enlivens the modest space
Client
PrivateTimeline
2022Status
On HoldLocation
North Haven, MaineRelated Work